Telephonic system for auditoriums.



K. M. TURNER.

TELEPHONIG SYSTEM FOR AUDITORIUMS.

APrLIoATIoN FILED JUNE 1, 1908.

f e@ a@ e@ @fw @ff ff@ @XN/memes 5 wu@ who@ KELLEY MONROE TURNER, orNEW' YoRK, N. Y.

TELEPHoNIo SYSTEM non UnI'ToniUMs.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Appiicaaon mea :tune 1, 190s. se'riai Nt. lim'is.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, KELLEY M. TURNER, a citizen of the United States,residing'at New York, Yin the borough of Manhattan V and State of NewYork, have invented cer-v tain new and useful Improvements in TelephonieSystems for Auditoriums, of which the following is a' full, clear, andexact description. v

This invention is a telephonie system intended for use in large halls orareas, for transmitting the speech of any person in the assembly who maybe speaking, to any indefinite; number of persons simultaneously who maybe located in the same hall or area or elsewhere.

It is Well known that in conventions -and A points 'at which they may bespeaking, and

likewise regardless of disturbing noises that may occur in theneighborhood of the listeners. The instruments used yare also eX-treinely sensitive so that persons more or less deaf are able to hearwhen ordinarilyl they could not. To accomplish this, my inventioncontemplates a telephonif system comprising transmitters of a sensitivecharacter which are located at selected, fixed points throughout thehall or area` to be covered; a plurality of receivers also distributedthroughout the hall or area' and any other places more or less remotetherefrom, ut convenientl for those who may Wish to listen, and a.switching` apparatus in charge of an operator so located that he has aView of the entire assembly, said switching appa.- ratus being capableof manipulation by the operator so as to connect and disconnect `at willany one or more of the transmitters with all'of the receivers. Th'us theoperator is able, by watching thosewho rise to speak and their movementswhile speaking, to cut into circuit with all of the, receivers 'theparticular transmitter or transmitters which will most effectivelytransmit and reproduce the remarks of the speaker. To facilitate themanipulation by the operator, in invention also includes a test receiverwhie is always in circuit with the other receivers and by transmission.

Patented Nov. 23, 1969.-

which the result f the operators manipulai tion of the switchingapparatusis at once made' knownto himself, which enables him to' operatethe system at its highest eh'icien'cy. i

My improved telephone system is illustrated in the accompanying drawing,wherein- Figure 1 is a plan of an assembly hall or other area wherepersons assemble for the purpose of debate or the interchange of ideasby means of speech,l equipped with the apparatus comprised in myimproved telephone systein, and Fig. 2 is a diagram of the circuitscomprised in the improved system.

The hall or area. A is supposed to be occupied by a large number ofpersons who ordinarily would occupy chairs or stalls arrangfgi ingroups, as indicated by the dotted lines, and separated by aisles. Theremay also be accommodations for a presiding oflicer at. B and secretariesor reporters at C. Distributed throughout such an area or hall are asuitable number of sensitive telephonie transmitters T. The type ofinstrument is preferably that known as the Acousticonl 'which is capableof 'transmitting sound emanating at a considerable distance from .theinstrument itself. These transmitters are fixed at their Variouslocations by fastening them to the desks, chairs, or otherspeciallysupplied su ports, and they are arranged with their rontsdirected with respect to one another so as to properly command the areasintervening betweenthen'i. These instruments being so sensitive, willoftentimes transmit sounds coming from a comparatively great distancebetter thaii they will transmit sounds that emanate from a point.immediately infront of -or very near them. For this reason the field towhich each instrument will respondA is comparatively large adtheinstruments may be located some distance from each other, but always -sothat there will be no location in the hall or area which does not comeWithin the range of at least one transmitter. The ranges or areas of thevarious transmitters also preferably overlap to a certain extent, sothat two or more transmitters can be used simultaneously to effect auniform degree of R indicates telephonie receivers which forconvenience"should be located at each chair or, stall and at each pointin the hall, area,

-or other localities where 'a person would be likely to desire to listento the proceedings. S is a switch-board located at some polnt in or nearthe hall or area where the operator in charge of it will have a view ofthe entire space and, for his particular use, there 1s provided a testreceiver r. All of the telephone receivers R and 7' are connected 1n thesame circuit so that any one or all of them can be used at the same timeand they will all receive the remarks of the same speaker. Theswitch-board is equipped with keys lc by which the operator can connectwith this single receiver circuit any one or more of the transmitters T,'and he can likewisev disconnect any of them at pleasure. The specic'feature of the apparatus for accomplishing this is not important, butin F1g..2 is shown diagram of the circuits wherein a general lettersthat have been used the reference heretofore are applied to the'sameparts, so

that further description is not necessary, it being understood that thebattery b is common to all ofthe instrument and that the keys are closedby simply pressing two springs together.

The operation is as follows: The o erator at the switch-board keeps theassem ly under observation constantel7 and, when he sees a speakerrise,-he imm iately manipulates the key-board 1n such a way a's to throwinto l circuit with all of the receivers, one or more transmitters Tinthe immediate neighbor'- hood of the speaker. At the same time helistens with his test receiver T, and,'if he finds he does not heardistinctly, he may cut out one or more of the transmitters in use andsubstitute others until finally he obtains satisfactory reproduction rathis re-v ceiver 1'. Every other receiver 1n the system,

provided it is in good. order, will reproduce the words of the speakerwith the same distinctness as the test receiver, so that any person inthe assembly who is located so far away from the speaker as'not to'hearhim distinctly', or who may be disturbed -by noises in his own immediateneighborhood, may

`-use tile receiver at his command 'to Bejar the remarks of the speaker.These receiving instruments, ifdesired, may be equipped with hand orautomatic switches of well known character for controlling their circuitwhen they are put into and out of use. It will be seen that with thisvisual supervision on 'the part of the switch-board operator, he isenabled to maintain the eiiiciency of the transmission, notwithstandingthe fact that a speaker may move from place to place while speaklng, andfrom the fact that the range of each transmitter overlaps that of itsneighbors, itwould be 'extremely difcult for any speaker to so changehis location that his remarks could'not be caught by at least one of theinstruments.

What I claiml'is: l

l. A telephone system 'comprising a plurality of transmittersdistributed at fixed polnts withreference to each other` throughout agiven area, a plurality of receivers connected in a single icircuit, anda switching station located in'a position which commands a view of theentire area, said switching station provided with manually operatedmeans for connecting anyone or more of said transmitters with thecircuit containinglr the receivers, substantially as described.

2. A telephone system comprising a plurality of transmitters distributedat fixed points with reference to each other through? out a given area,a plurality` of receivers distributed throughout said area and connectedin a single circuit, and a switching

